Do Film Critics Need Vo-Tech Training?

Criticwire convened a meeting of the Raccoon Lodge to ask whether it was vital for film critics to have a hands-on knowledge of filmmaking and a less than foggy familiarity with Film Theory before slathering on the mayonnaise. Some of the answers may surprise you, if you have jumpy nerves, like Julie Harris in The Haunting, but don't let me prejudice you by singling out any particular Raccoon response.

Instead you can read the entire rollcall __here__and vote for your favorite on the next episode of American Idol.

As for me, I think it's important, indeed necessary, or at least tactically advantageous, to know stuff about the field you're writing in. That's probably a controversial thing to say in this age of gathering your "feels" in an Easter basket and skipping down the lane, but I'm a child of the Enlightment in an age of Selfie-Expression (Kanye and Kim on the cover of Vogue), so there.

Technical know-how helps in the filmcrit racket--my faith in Dwight Macdonald was shaken when he confessed in On Movies that for forty years he thought a lap dissolve meant "holding the camera in the lap"--and a background in film theory may supply a useful trellis to provide your personal predispositions and prejudices a semblance of structural grid, but I personally wish film critics had more interest in fashion, interior design, and the organic mechanics of acting than they evince. I don't get the impression that most film critics today have dipped their beaks into acting theory or seen enough theater to take in what actors are capable of when they're not serving up flashcard closeups or being razored with edits. Too much film reviewing is boys'-club auteurship deciding whether the director is deserving of the winner's belt this time out and can continue to the next championship round.

No one asked but I would venture that the most underrated film critic right now is Stuart Klawans of The Nation, whose columns have a classic roundedness perhaps out of sync with the disjointed rat-a-tat of online reviewing/Twitter/Facebook. I recommend him here on The Grand Budapest Hotel and registering a dissent on The Wolf of Wall Street.